Biography

Keith ButlerDefensive Coordinator

Keith Butler is in his 1st year as the Steelers' defensive coordinator following 12 years as the Steelers’ linebackers coach. He was hired on January 28, 2003, after serving the previous four seasons (1999-2002) as the linebackers’ coach of the Cleveland Browns. Butler remained on the Steelers’ staff following Mike Tomlin’s hiring in January of 2007.

Keith ButlerDefensive Coordinator

Keith Butler is in his 1st year as the Steelers' defensive coordinator following 12 years as the Steelers’ linebackers coach. He was hired on January 28, 2003, after serving the previous four seasons (1999-2002) as the linebackers’ coach of the Cleveland Browns. Butler remained on the Steelers’ staff following Mike Tomlin’s hiring in January of 2007.

Butler and Tomlin previously worked together at Memphis in 1996, when Butler coached the linebackers, defensive ends and special teams units, and Tomlin served as the Tigers’ defensive backs coach.

Since Butler arrived, he has been instrumental in the development of the Steelers’ highly touted linebacking corps. He was honored in 2008 when he was named NFL Linebacker Coach of the Year by Pro Football Weekly.

In 2013, linebackers Lawrence Timmons and Jason Worilds led a unit that lost two veterans, Larry Foote and LaMarr Woodley, to season-ending injuries. Timmons led the team with a career-high 155 tackles, the third time he recorded 100+ tackles in the last four seasons. Timmons also ended the season starting his team-best 53rd consecutive regular-season contest. Worilds led the team with a career-high eight sacks. He also finished second on the team with 29 quarterback pressures.

Butler’s linebackers helped Pittsburgh’s defense secure the NFL’s number-one ranking in 2012. Five different linebackers each recorded four or more sacks in 2012 for the first time in team history, since sacks became an official statistic in 1982. Timmons had a memorable 2012 campaign, as he became the first Steeler to lead the team or tie for the team high in tackles, interceptions and sacks since Joey Porter in 2002.

The Steelers have a tradition of fielding some of the best pass-rushing linebackers in the NFL. In 2011, LaMarr Woodley was named AFC Defensive Player of the Month for October after he registered a league-high 7.5 sacks, 25 tackles and one interception. Pittsburgh registered 28 sacks at home in 2011, which were the second-most sacks at home (36 in 1996) since sacks became an official statistic in 1982.

Butler’s guidance helped former Steeler James Harrison become one of the league’s most elite performers. Harrison, the 2008 NFL Defensive Player of the Year, earned two straight team MVP awards (2007-08), recorded the longest play in Super Bowl history, a 100-yard interception return for a touchdown in Super Bowl XLIII, and five straight Pro Bowl Selections (2007-11). Harrison still holds the team record for sacks in a season, a career-high 16 in 2008.

Woodley owns an NFL record for posting two sacks in each of his first four postseason games, and his 57 career sacks are good for the fifth-highest total for a Steelers’ player since sacks became an official statistic in 1982. Besides Harrison, Woodley is the only player in team history to record 10 or more sacks in a season for three straight years (2008-10). Harrison and Woodley have accounted for two of the top four sack totals by a Steelers’ duo in team history. The two teamed up in 2008 to produce the most sacks in a single-season by a duo (27.5). In 2006, Butler’s linebacking crew helped the Steelers’ defense not allow a 100-yard rusher the entire season, and in 2005 led the AFC and ranked fourth in the NFL in total defense.

Prior to joining the Browns’ staff, Butler spent nine years coaching in the college ranks, beginning at his alma mater, Memphis, where he coached linebackers from 1990-97, and also coached defensive ends and special teams (1995-97). He then served as defensive coordinator and linebackers coach at Arkansas State in 1998.

Butler was selected by the Seattle Seahawks in the second round of the 1978 NFL Draft and played linebacker for 10 seasons (1978-87), all with Seattle. He started 132 of 146 games in his career, and still ranks second on the club’s all-time tackles list with 813.

A three-year starter at inside linebacker for Memphis, Butler led the team in tackles his junior and senior seasons. He finished his collegiate career with 384 tackles and seven interceptions. He was named a 1977 Associated Press All-American and played in the 1977 Senior Bowl and Blue-Gray All-Star Game. Butler was born in Anniston, Ala. He and his wife Janet have three sons, Blake, Brandon and Brett.

The Pittsburgh Steelers take you behind the scenes of the team's 2014 NFL Draft process. Episode One focuses on the end of the 2013 season and the collaboration between coaches, scouts, and ownership to begin the evaluation process.